The trailer for Join Us first appeared during the Xbox Showcase in June, offering a glimpse of a darkly humorous co‑op cult simulation. In the clip, robed followers zip around on pigs, wielding machine guns, before the screen fades to massive, Cthulhu‑like tentacles. One element that didn’t make the final cut was the infamous snake gun, a quirky weapon that Joe Dietsch, the CEO and creative director of Wolf Haus Games, says was inspired by a child’s off‑hand suggestion.
"One of the team members’ kids asked, ‘What would a snake‑gun look like?’ We had a rapid‑prototyping tool that let us spin up a new weapon in about half an hour, so I built one that actually fires snakes. The kid went nuts, and we kept it in the game," Dietsch recalls.
This anecdote captures the chaotic, experimental spirit that defines Join Us, an open‑world sandbox where players can recruit followers—or fellow players in co‑op mode—to build a 1970s‑style cult. It also illustrates the studio’s technology‑first mindset, which has allowed a small group of developers to produce a visually rich, large‑scale experience. Michael Abbott, Wolf Haus’s chief operating officer, describes the team’s ambition as deliberately disruptive.
"We told everyone we could deliver a AAA‑level product with just twelve people. Most people laughed and said it was impossible," he says. Their confidence stems from a background in low‑budget, high‑impact indie filmmaking, where they learned to stretch resources far beyond what the budget would normally allow.
After 80 pitch meetings, the studio finally secured equity investment from Krafton and Lifelike Capital, giving Wolf Haus the financial runway it needed. The founders’ Hollywood roots run deep. Dietsch studied film at Chapman University alongside Louie Gibson, son of actor‑director Mel Gibson, and the two later co‑wrote and co‑directed the indie features Happy Hunting and Manifest West.
Abbott is the son of veteran makeup artist Larry Abbott and helped launch Ascendant Pictures, a production company originally founded by Chris Roberts before his shift to Star Citizen. Abbott later produced movies such as Fight for ’84, starring Jamie Foxx. Join Us began as a personal experiment in Unreal Engine. "I discovered Unreal was free to download and started tinkering with it after watching countless YouTube tutorials," Dietsch explains.
Although he had never built a game before, he quickly produced a few small prototypes. The idea that stuck was a doomsday cult simulator that fused survival mechanics with grindhouse cinema aesthetics—a concept that merged his love of movies and games into a single intellectual property. He built a proof‑of‑concept demo, expecting to hit a technical wall at some point.
When he showed the demo to Abbott, the latter recognized its potential and presented it to Dooma, a partner studio that helped refine the vision. Dooma Wendschuh, Wolf Haus’s chief financial officer and narrative director, entered the gaming world after a career as a film producer and screenwriter. In the early 2000s he founded Sekretagent Productions, providing narrative work for titles like Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Assassin’s Creed, and Batman: Arkham Origins. Later, he launched several tech ventures, most notably the cannabis formulation company Ebbu, which sold for roughly C$430 million (US$330 million).
After cashing out, Wendschuh bought a remote island restaurant in Canada, intending to retire. That retirement was short‑lived. A call from his old Hollywood‑Hills roommate, Michael Abbott, led him to a demo of Join Us that “blew his mind,” prompting him to come out of retirement and join the project.
He introduced the game to Reid Schneider, former VP at Warner Bros. Games and now head of Raccoon Logic (the studio behind Journey to the Savage Planet), who became a strategic advisor. Schneider also recruited Pierre‑Olivier Chartrand, a former Ubisoft Montreal programmer, as Wolf Haus’s chief technology officer.
With the core team assembled, the next hurdle was funding—particularly challenging during the industry downturn of 2023‑24. The studio began pitching in the summer of 2023, receiving positive feedback but facing a tough market.
After securing representation from CAA in Los Angeles and refining their pitch, they closed a seed round with Lifelike Capital and Krafton in 2024. Wendschuh notes that CAA’s connections, including agents who had represented titles like 007: First Light, were instrumental, as were veteran advisors Schneider and Chartrand. Despite the high‑profile backing, Join Us is being built by just 13 full‑time staff.
Dietsch emphasizes that the small‑team ethos is intentional: everyone has a voice, everyone contributes to the creative direction, and the final product feels like the work of a tightly knit group rather than a faceless corporation. To make such an ambitious title feasible, the studio invested heavily in custom tools early in development.
"Every system must be scalable and debuggable by a single person," Dietsch says. "We built a toolkit that lets us expand features across a massive open world without the project collapsing under its own weight." The funding model gave the team the breathing room to perfect these tools. Krafton and Lifelike’s equity investments were used to self‑fund the game’s development, with only a modest amount of project finance earmarked for marketing. "Equity partners are motivated to increase the studio’s enterprise value, so they support our tool‑building philosophy," Wendschuh explains.
"Whenever we encounter a problem we can’t solve, we create a tool to address it. It may slow us down in the short term, but it enables a tiny team to deliver a game of this scope." When asked about generative AI, the team is unequivocal: they do not rely on it for creative work. "We believe a human touch is essential. Using AI to generate assets would defeat the purpose of why we love making games," Dietsch states.
Wendschuh adds that the only AI they use is for administrative tasks like calendar management and email drafting. Interestingly, Krafton—publicly positioning itself as an "AI‑first" company—insisted that Wolf Haus avoid generative AI in the creative pipeline, mirroring a similar stance taken by Neon Giant, another Krafton‑owned studio. The studio’s commitment to handcrafted content extends to the game’s world and audio.
The six‑kilometre‑square map was built entirely by hand, and the 15,000 voice lines were recorded by human actors, not AI‑generated voices. "That was a non‑negotiable for us, even as a small indie," Dietsch says. Dietsch also reflects on the differences between filmmaking and game development.
In film, an idea can take years to materialise, requiring approvals, casting, and extensive pre‑production. In contrast, a game idea can be prototyped within hours. "You can have a concept in the morning, drop it into the engine, and see it instantly," he enthuses. Wendschuh observes that film production is heavily front‑loaded, with massive coordination required before cameras even roll, whereas games have far fewer gatekeepers.
"Anyone can rent a camera and shoot a backyard movie, but without star power or distribution, it rarely succeeds. A game, however, can reach a global audience without needing an A‑list director or actor," he notes.
Both founders agree that the core creative impulse—telling a story and delivering an experience—remains the same across mediums. "When I was six, I wanted to make either movies or games. It boiled down to a coin toss and maybe getting a camera for Christmas," Dietsch recalls. He learned programming on a TI‑83 calculator, blending his love of both worlds.
"Whether you’re making a film or a game, you’re crafting an experience, telling a story, and engaging an audience. That fundamental drive doesn’t change."